The Early Builders of Zion: The Rabbis Who Sparked the Dream of a Jewish State

Theodor Herzl began his Zionist activism in 1894, and the First Zionist Congress was convened in 1897. Even earlier, in 1881, the Chovevei Tzion (“Lovers of Zion”) societies were formed.

Was the idea of a Jewish state already envisioned before all this? The answer is yes — decades earlier.

Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Kalischer: A Pioneer of Jewish National Revival

Thirty-five years before the First Zionist Congress, in 1862, Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Kalischer — a student of Rabbi Akiva Eiger, rabbi of Poznań in Germany, and one of the great halachic authorities of his generation, published his groundbreaking book “Derishat Tzion.”
Rabbi Kalischer was nearly 70 years old at the time, and the book represented the culmination of his decades-long efforts to establish a Jewish state in the Land of Israel. At the same time, he served as rabbi and head of the rabbinical court in the German city of Thorn.

In the introduction to his book, Rabbi Kalischer writes: “For more than thirty years I have labored greatly in this matter, even while our great and holy master Rabbi Akiva Eiger was still alive, and he agreed with my approach.”

Close to thirty years earlier — while Baron Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the second patriarch of the Rothschild dynasty, was still alive, Rabbi Kalischer appealed to him to organize wealthy Jews to purchase the Land of Israel from the Ottoman Sultan. He later pursued similar efforts with Sir Moses Montefiore.

The First Modern Settlement Society

Two years before the publication of Derishat Tzion, Dr. Chaim Luria of Frankfurt established the “Society for the Settlement of the Land of Israel.” Rabbi Kalischer was among the leading thinkers behind the society, whose mission was to bring the Redemption closer, support Torah scholars in the Land, and promote agricultural Jewish settlement.

His vision, expressed in Derishat Tzion, was: “To settle many of our brethren of the House of Israel in the Holy Land, working with the labor of their hands.”

Rabbinic Support: Traditional Judaism as the Seed of Jewish National Revival

Historian Joseph Salmon writes: “The rabbinic endorsements for Derishat Tzion strengthen the argument that the idea of settling the Land of Israel and national Jewish revival has its roots in traditional Judaism — standing between Eastern and Western European Jewish thought.”

Salmon details the enthusiastic endorsements given by leading rabbis of the time.

Rabbi Shmuel Mohilever: The Rabbi Who Convinced Baron Rothschild

Parallel to Rabbi Kalischer, Rabbi Shmuel Mohilever — a leading disciple of Rabbi Yitzchak of Volozhin and graduate of the Volozhin Yeshiva, worked tirelessly to promote Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel.

After years of activism, Rabbi Mohilever embarked on a fundraising mission across European communities. During this mission, he achieved a historic breakthrough that changed the future of the settlement movement: He convinced Baron Edmond de Rothschild to support the new Jewish agricultural colonies in the Land of Israel.

For many years afterward, Rothschild funded numerous settlements that would not have survived the harsh Ottoman-era conditions without him.

At first, Rabbi Mohilever was not even allowed to meet the Baron. Members of the Paris-based Alliance Israélite Universelle dismissed him as unrealistic — arguing that the Jewish future was in Europe and that settlement in the Land of Israel was nothing more than a religious eccentricity.

Rabbi Mohilever turned to the Chief Rabbi of Paris, Rabbi Zadok Cohen, who persuaded the Baron to grant a meeting. During that meeting — on Chol HaMoed Sukkot, 1882 (5643), Rabbi Mohilever successfully convinced Rothschild that agricultural settlement was viable and could ultimately lead to the establishment of a Jewish state.

Later, Rothschild invited Yosef Feinberg, one of the founders of Rishon LeZion, to meet with him. Many Zionist histories present Feinberg as the first to approach Rothschild, although in fact his meeting occurred one month after Rabbi Mohilever’s meeting — and as a direct result of it.

Founding Ekron: A Model of Torah-Rooted Settlement

Rabbi Mohilever later founded the settlement Ekron (Mazkeret Batya). In a letter, he writes: “The colony of Ekron, which I established with the funds of the noble benefactor Edmond de Rothschild of Paris — after working with him for more than three years during my stay in Paris, is composed entirely of farmers from their youth, upright and God-fearing.”

The True Early Visionaries of the Jewish State

These rabbis — the scholars, leaders, and activists who dreamed of a Jewish state long before Herzl, envisioned a Torah-guided Jewish nation in the Land of Israel, and they devoted their lives to building the foundations of the modern Jewish homeland.

They were the early architects of the idea that would later become the State of Israel.